Greg McElroy questions Les Miles' Hall of Fame qualifications amid LSU lawsuit

Les Miles sued LSU this week due to vacated wins that have impacted his eligibility for the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s a unique situation and one that Greg McElroy saw several angles of in his analysis of the lawsuit.

McElroy gave his opinion on the matter during Thursday’s episode of ‘Always College Football’. He began by prefacing that vacating wins was always a useless practice of him. The NCAA or schools may use it as a punishment but that doesn’t at all mean that those games never took place in his eyes.

“I’ve always thought that taking away wins was dumb – personal opinion,” said McElroy. “I remember Les Miles winning those 37 games so I’ve never felt like it really mattered that much. Like, when you take away wins, it just, to me, doesn’t mean a whole lot. I mean I still remember the games, I still remember the outcomes and you can’t tell me that those games didn’t happen because those wins are no longer listed historically.”

Again, though, this case is different than other due to its impact on his eligibility. The 37 wins that the Tigers took away from 2012 to 2015 due to recruiting violations has set Miles’ career record at 108-73 (.596), which just misses the requirement of a .600 winning percentage that’s required to make the Hall. With those wins applied, his overall record at Oklahoma State, LSU, and Kansas is 145-73 (.665).

However, while it’s interesting to McElroy, he also doesn’t agree that Miles is Hall of Fame-worthy. That’s just based on his own opinion of him rather than anything regarding his resumé.

“In this particular case, it’s kind of interesting,” McElroy thought. “I’ve never thought about the Hall of Fame. Never thought about how vacating wins would potentially impact somebody who would be in the Hall of Fame.”

“In this particular case, having played against Les Miles, and having played against the teams that he was coaching against? I have a tremendous amount of respect for the amount of intensity that his teams played with. He obviously did a great job recruiting, did a great job of making sure his teams were physical, tough, and not a team that you ever wanted to play against. When I think about, like, the best of all time, when I think Hall of Fame? I think best of all time – personal opinion. Best coaches of all time and I’ve never thought of Les Miles as one of the best of all time – personal opinion,” stated McElroy. “I know records and things like that would indicate otherwise.”

To McElroy, this isn’t an issue between Miles and LSU. It’s more so a matter of the Hall of Fame needing to improve their qualifications for entry in Atlanta.

“I personally believe, when we think about the Hall of Fame, why is the threshold at 60% for a Hall of Fame coach?” McElroy asked. “Shouldn’t it be like 75% or 80% perhaps? I don’t know. What’s a going rate for a Hall of Fame coach, an all-time great? Winning a national championship – that would have you in the mix. Is really the threshold just 60%? That, to me, seems outrageously low.”

“I would maybe advise the Hall of Fame to increase that threshold because I don’t just want every run of the mill coach that went 7-5 – if you go 7-5 in your whole career, you’re on the fringe of Hall of Fame-status. That, to me, is not good enough,” said McElroy. “I know you’ve got to win x-amount of games too – 100 wins or whatever it is but goodness gracious.”

The 17-page complaint against LSU, the NCAA, and the NFF will play out as it may. It’s just not much of an issue to McElroy based on his own thoughts on both Miles and the Hall of Fame itself.